


The Science of Fatherhood

by winter_writes



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Autistic Entrapta (She-Ra), Canon Autistic Character, Canon Disabled Character, Canon Non-Binary Character, Chronic Illness, Crack, Don't copy to another site, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Fatherhood, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Crack, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Genetic Engineering, Genetically Engineered Beings, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, Kissing, Other, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, but not pregnancy, having a baby, internalized ableism, mild crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:06:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24825769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winter_writes/pseuds/winter_writes
Summary: Entrapta wants to have a child.Hordak wants that too. He’s just scared…
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra), Finn (She-Ra)/Original Female Character
Comments: 28
Kudos: 174





	1. Chapter 1

Entrapta wanted it. It was clear from the expression in her eyes and the set of her mouth every time she even came close to broaching the subject. 

But his responses all made her sad. Seeing her that way weighed on him, weighed him down. Hordak found himself conflicted between the terror of saying yes to her, and the sorrow of saying no. 

In the end, he had to admit that he wanted it as well. It was a summer evening when he paused in his work, turned to her, took her hand and said that he wanted it too. 

* 

They talked about it. They were good at talking to each other, though not necessarily to other people. 

As always, Entrapta made excellent points. They both wanted to have a child. They both had the scientific expertise required to combine Etherian and Horde DNA. They both wanted a child. They had the mechanical skill to build a vitrine for the foetus to grow. They both wanted a child. They could build baby monitors so that the child could be supervised even when they were both working in the lab. They both wanted a child. 

They both wanted a child. 

They both wanted a child. 

* 

Horde Prime had never been fatherly. 

Godlike, yes. A leader, definitely. But a father? Not in any one of Prime’s thousands of years. 

If anything, he’d been a master. The clones were treated either as puppets or dogs. To obey him blindly, or to worship him unquestioningly. 

Hordak didn’t know where to begin when it came to fatherly feelings. 

He found himself thinking back to Adora. He could still remember how it had felt to hold her in his arms, before she was She-Ra, before she was a Horde soldier, back when she was an infant so small that Hordak could carry her in one arm. 

If he had raised her as his own, would he know what to do now? Probably. 

But he had not. Back then, he’d still been under Prime’s thumb, even though he was no longer connected to the hivemind. He’d barely known what a father was, let alone that he might want to be one. 

And yet, he missed the sensation of how it had felt to hold Adora, tiny and vulnerable in his arms. 

He wanted a child. 

* 

They built the vitrine and studied the gene sequencing and took samples from each other and, ever so carefully, combined them. 

* 

Seven failed attempts before they managed a foetus that could survive over a month. 

Every time an attempt failed, they held each other and wept silently, then got up, dried each other’s tears, and went to figure out what had gone wrong, to not make the same mistake for their next attempt. 

By the fifth try, Hordak could barely look at the tiny thing floating in its sea of clear fluid, in spite of the hopes he was pinning on that clump of cells. 

But attempt eight? Attempt eight was still going strong. 

They had no idea how an Etherian-Horde hybrid would develop during gestation, but every time Entrapta took a reading, she would smile. 

“She’s doing great.” 

It had turned out that the foetus was biologically female, and in keeping with Etherian tradition they were referring to it by she/her pronouns until the child was old enough to decide her gender for herself. 

Hordak was going to have a daughter. 

* 

And time passed and the almost-child kept growing, and somehow, somehow, it didn’t die. 

* 

The gestation period had just passed six months when it moved. (Hordak still thought of the foetus as an _it_. If he thought of it as a _she_ , then he knew it would hurt more if something went wrong.) 

A kick of the legs. That was all. 

That was all, but as soon as he saw it Hordak left the lab, broke into a run, ran until he found an empty room in a deep, dark basement of Crypto Castle. 

He curled up in a ball and sobbed. 

It wasn’t the first time he’d ever cried. He’d wept when Double Trouble told him that Entrapta hadn’t actually betrayed him, but that had been only tears. A few tears in his eyes, and a whole lot of rage at Catra’s betrayal. 

But now the anger was directed only at himself, and the tears weren’t anywhere near as neat. His body shook with every sob. __

_What am I doing?_

_What have I done?_

* 

When most of the tears had passed, he stripped off his armour piece by piece. His body protested, but he didn’t stop until all he was wearing was the black dress that he wore every day. 

Hordak stood. A wave of dizziness made his head swim, and he leaned against the wall for support. 

“Hordak? Are you down here?” 

Entrapta. Part of him wanted to hide from her, but he knew that hiding wasn’t the right decision right now. “I’m in here.” 

As soon as she saw his tears, Entrapta was hugging him. “What happened? What’s wrong?” 

He pressed his face into her hair before he replied. “She moved.” 

Entrapta pulled back, grinning. “That’s amazing! I’ve got to review the footage.” 

He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and shook his head. “No, it’s… I…” Hordak fell to his knees. 

Entrapta knelt beside him and held his face in her hands. “What’s wrong, Hordak?” she asked again. “Why did you take off your suit?” 

He swallowed. “Entrapta, the reason why I was so… hesitant to agree to having a child was not because I didn’t want one. It was because it – it would be _my_ child.” 

She frowned, not understanding. “But that’s the whole point. We combined our DNA to produce offspring. That’s what having a child _means_.” 

“Exactly. She will display characteristics from you, and characteristics from me, so –” He looked into Entrapta’s eyes, hoping that she would be able to forgive him. “How long do you think it will be before she ends up like me? How long before her body begins to fail her? How long until she collapses, until she needs a brace to walk? And it will all be because she is _my_ daughter. My fault.” 

“You could use the same logic for me,” said Entrapta sadly. “I mean, she might end up like me, not being able to understand people very well. But you’ve always said that you don’t mind that. And if you don’t mind the fact that I can’t always understand people, then surely, if she _is_ like me, she might find some people who don’t mind that she doesn’t always understand people.” 

“Of course,” said Hordak. “The fact that your mind works differently is not a fault. My body, however…” 

Entrapta wiped away his tears. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s gonna be okay, Hordak. If she ends up needing a brace, we’ll make her one. It won’t be so bad. I mean, you need your suit, and you’re still okay most of the time.” 

She helped him back into his suit, then helped him stand. “Do you feel better now?” 

“I… truly, I do not know. It is too late to turn back, at least. Six months and she’s still stable. But I do not want her to resent me, if she ends up with my problems just because she’s my daughter.” 

Entrapta hugged him. “I don’t think she’d be mean like that, Hordak, I really don’t.” 

“After she’s born, I’m going to worry about her. Constantly.” 

“I think that’s just what being a parent is like.” 

* 

At eight months she was still stable, so they named her Amara. 

Her body was almost completely developed. 

Like Hordak, she had pointed ears and a patch of grey skin on either side of her face. Her hands were like his too; grey and clawed. The grey faded into Entrapta’s brown at her wrists, and the rest of her body was brown-skinned too. The strands of hair growing through on her head were purple like her mother’s. Hordak was relived at that; better Entrapta’s purple than Horde Prime’s bleached white. Her eyes wouldn’t open until she was born, so they didn’t know what colour they were yet. 

* 

Most expecting Etherian parents didn’t know the exact time when their child would be born, but Entrapta and Hordak were far too scientifically minded for that, so at the optimum stage of Amara’s development, the fluid drained out of the vitrine, and the front part of the vitrine swung open. 

Hordak pulled on a pair of long medical gloves, and gently lifted his daughter out of the vitrine, placing her on a towel that they’d laid out on a nearby work surface. 

Entrapta dried the fluid off her daughter slowly and carefully, and halfway through the process, Amara opened a pair of bright red eyes. 

* 

Raising a daughter was exhausting. It was also one of the best things Hordak had ever done, tied with marrying Entrapta. 

It wasn’t that Amara needed constant attention. Sometimes she was asleep, or content to lie in her cradle while Imp and Emily stood guard. 

But whenever she was awake, Hordak and Entrapta wanted to be with her. They wanted to watch her crawl around, and watch her chew on her toys (she had inherited Hordak’s pointed teeth), and they wanted to watch her watch them, her crimson eyes wide and inquisitive. 

They talked to her a lot. Entrapta said that talking to a baby was crucial for brain development, so as they both worked on their various projects, they would explain to Amara what they were doing. 

(Amara was allowed into the lab, but only once her parents had fitted a reinforced glass dome over her crib so that she couldn’t get hurt by accident.) 

Entrapta was just as invested in their daughter as Hordak was. Her parents had died when she was very young, leaving her to be raised by servants and robots, and she was clearly dedicated to being around their daughter for every moment possible. 

One evening, as he sat by Entrapta and watched her rocking Amara to sleep, Hordak realised that Horde Prime had never understood love. He had claimed to love his clones, his ‘little brothers’ whom he’d created, but he hadn’t. He’d wanted to possess them and control them, but that wasn’t love. But Hordak had created Amara, and he _did_ love her. 

It felt somewhat strange. After all, he had fallen in love with Entrapta over a period of months, working by her side, and then later, after the mind-wipe, slowly remembering how kind she’d been to him. But with Amara it had been instant and unconditional. With Entrapta, he had created a daughter, and he loved her with all his heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Amara’s first word was ‘spanner’, closely followed by ‘mama’ and ‘dada’. And yes, Hordak did cry when she said that. She also had a cuddly toy pooka.
> 
> Imp is definitely a protective older brother.
> 
> Species can’t interbreed unless they’re in the same genus, and as much as Entrapta and Hordak could have used magic to have a child, I think that genetic engineering is more their style. I don’t think that using magic would have even occurred to them.
> 
> Another reason why I had them use genetic engineering is because I genuinely cannot decide whether I want Entrapta and Hordak to have an asexual relationship or not. I think it could go either way: maybe they have sex with each other, maybe they don’t. I wanted to keep things ambiguous so that the reader can interpret it either way (and either interpretation is correct, of course).
> 
> I once saw someone on twitter spout the horrible opinion that “disabled people shouldn’t have kids because that just makes more disableds”. Aside from the disgusting ableism and the poor grammar, it reflects a rather horrible idea of eugenics; that a person should only reproduce if their biology meets a certain standard.
> 
> I have decided that Amara will inherit both her parents’ disabilities. And that’s okay. And the fact that Amara will need braces on her legs is because she’s Hordak’s daughter, but Hordak shouldn’t be blamed for that. Because at the end of the day, being disabled won’t stop her from having a good life.
> 
> Comments and kudos = love
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. I am not making money from this work.


	2. Chapter 2

Someone was singing in Crypto Castle. 

Over the years, Bow had got used to the labyrinthine corridors of Entrapta’s home, but having a distant song echo through the halls made the hairs stand up on the back of his neck. 

He walked slowly towards the main lab, trying not to freak out. “Hello?” he called, “Entrapta? I’ve got a few prototypes from the Maker’s Guild for you to test.” 

The singing cut off, and Bow heard footsteps approach. “Oh, hello Hordak. Do you know where Entrapta is?” 

“She went into town to get some more aluminium sheets.” 

“Okay. I guess I’ll wait.” It was at this point that Bow noticed what Hordak was holding: a tiny baby, wrapped in a purple blanket. “You’re, uh, holding a baby.” 

“Indeed,” said Hordak, looking unimpressed with Bow’s observation skills. 

“Where did you… get… a baby?” 

Hordak gently shifted the way he was holding the infant. “Entrapta and I created her. Her name is Amara.” 

“ _Right_. Good. Good for you. Congratulations.” He paused. “So, how old is she? Because, well, I see Entrapta relatively frequently, and she hasn’t, you know, _looked_ like she was going to have a baby…” 

“Of course she didn’t. Our species cannot interbreed in the traditional sense. Amara was genetically engineered and grown in a vitrine.” 

“Of course!” said Bow, wondering when Entrapta and Hodak would have told the Princess Alliance about their baby if he hadn’t come to the castle today. “Is there anybody else here? Because I heard singing when I came in.” 

“That was me. Amara finds it soothing to have someone sing to her, and Entrapta cannot carry a tune, so the task falls to me.” 

Hordak. Singing. Okay, maybe this wasn’t the weirdest thing Bow had ever experienced, but it was up there, right alongside Sea Hawk’s stag night. 

“Can I hold her?” he asked. 

Hordak took a moment to consider Bow’s request. At length, he handed Amara over. “Be very careful, and support her head.” _And if anything happens to my daughter, I will rip out your throat with my claws_ , was something that Hordak didn’t say, but fully conveyed with his facial expression. 

Bow looked down at Amara. She was surprisingly cute for the child of a former dictator. After a few minutes, however, she seemed to change her mind about having a stranger hold her, and began to cry. 

Hordak took her back and started rocking her against his chest and murmuring gently. When he kissed her forehead she giggled, and Bow thought his brain might break from the cognitive dissonance of it all. He made his excuses and wandered into a different room, to wait for Entrapta there. 

* 

“Why are you so worried?” asked Amara. 

“Because –” said Finn, “Because it’s meeting your parents, okay? It’s a big deal.” 

“I’ve met _your_ parents,” said Amara in that matter-of-fact way of hers, her leg braces whirring as they climbed the hill to Crypto Castle. “It didn’t feel like a big deal.” 

“Yeah, but that was different.” Their moms were well-known throughout Etheria. Adora was She-Ra, and she was rarely seen without Catra by her side. They travelled all over – including going to Crypto Castle – so of course they’d met Amara several times over the years. 

Amara’s parents were… different. 

Her mom, Entrapta, had the overall reputation of ‘super-smart and weird, but nice’. Finn had met her a couple of times when she delivered inventions to Bright Moon. Her father, on the other hand… 

“Look,” said Finn, “I’m just nervous about meeting your dad, okay?”

“Don’t be,” said Amara, and her ponytail wrapped itself around their waist, pulling Finn in for a quick kiss. “It’ll be fine.” 

“He’s Lord Hordak!” 

Amara let go of him. “Well, technically he’s _Prince_ Hordak, because he stopped being Lord Hordak when he stopped his conquest of Etheria, and later he married mom.” 

“Yeah but… he’s scary, okay?” 

“What makes him scary?” 

Finn briefly considered explaining to their girlfriend that her father had once laid waste to Etheria, and as a result was a very, _very_ , scary person, but decided against it. Sometimes Amara didn’t understand things like that. They didn’t mind, though. They liked how she was honest, and really clever, and, yeah, the fangs were kind of hot too. 

Finn hoped that their hair looked… well, their hair was never neat, but they hoped that it was at least presentable. Their binder felt too tight, but they knew that it fitted, it was just nerves, that was all. 

This was going to be fine. 

This was going to be fine. 

All they were doing was meeting their girlfriend’s dad for the first time ever, and hopefully they wouldn’t make a mess of things. 

* 

Entrapta greeted Amara and Finn with her customary friendliness, offering up tiny snacks and fizzy drinks, which Finn accepted. 

But then Entrapta said that she wanted to show Amara an interesting development in one of her experiments, so they both went to the lab, leaving Finn on their own, clutching a glass of lemonade. 

A shadow darkened the doorway, and Hordak swept into the room. 

Tall and thin, dressed all in black (though Finn had to admit that it was a very nice dress), he couldn’t have been more intimidating. 

Finn looked up at Hordak and remembered every story they’d ever been told about the Horde. About how Horde Prime conquered planets with a wave of his hand and ruled them with an iron fist. And this was the man who had _defied_ Horde Prime. 

“So,” said Prince Hordak, formerly Lord Hordak, ex-dictator, and, in Finn’s opinion, the most terrifying man on Etheria, “What makes you think you’re good enough to date my daughter?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And _scene_.
> 
> Finn fell in love with Amara on a trip to Mystacor.
> 
> Keston John, Hordak’s voice actor, is a good singer, so Hordak sings Amara to sleep.


End file.
